Pee in the pool. It's a problem.

From Chengdu QQ:

"I went to a school's swimming pool to go swimming, but someone peed in the pool. I wanted to tread water, but I ended up treading pee."

The Orchard Villas swimming pool. This guy did not pee in the pool, as far as we know. But he did kindly pose for a cover of CHENGDOO citylife Magazine last summer. Photo by Dan Sandoval.

Yesterday, a netizen called "Shuai Pang" (translates to something like "Handsome Fatso") posted to a well-known forum that he has had this experience at several swimming pools and that now it's time to expose the pee-ful truth.

But the Chengdu City Department of Sanitation Law Enforcement is defending itself, saying that the claims made in the post are untrue.

In his post, "Shuai Pang" wrote that he recently went to a high-school pool with his cousin to teach her how to swim. But after only a few laps they were disgusted to see people popping pimples and others peeing in the pool! And after swimming a few times, he developed an infection in his left eye. A coworker told him that the sanitation department had just recently conducted water-quality checks and that, altogether, of the 45 pools that had been checked, only 20 had met the control standards. The water in over half the pools had not passed because too many people had urinated in the pools.

With the recent heat waves and only more hot weather on the horizon, many netizens read Shuai Pang's post with interest. What? Are you just going to not swim? they asked.

Don't worry, as always, our faithful Chengdu Commercial Daily reporter was on the scene to investigate.

The reporter checked in at several pools within the city borders and found that the water quality at all of them was checked almost daily.

"At present, all we can do is advise," explained a manager at the Mengzhuiwan pool, adding that most of the people who pee in the pool are children. (Thanks, Sherlock!) And although their parents might bring them to the toilet and remind them not to pee in the pool, it's impossible to make sure that nobody pees in the pool.

The manager of the Mengzhuiwan pool said that the water temperature, pH level, and chlorine levels are checked every hour, and that the results of the test are posted on a board near the entrance for the public to see.

The pool at Xi'an Bei Lu in the Qingyang District is checked daily and its water quality level ranked, according to an employee there. Usually the pool receives an A ranking, said the employee.

"Even if a child pees in the pool, we'll take care of it in a timely manner," said a worker surnamed Yang at the Cheng Bei pool. The water is continuously being cycled through a filter that disinfects it and the worker monitors the water every four hours to ensure that it is at an acceptable quality.

Every year the Chengdu City Department of Sanitation Law Enforcement carries out tests on all the pools in the city by sending water samples to the Center for Disease Control. There, the water is checked for urine levels, bacteria counts, and so on, and each pool receives a ranking of A, B, or C. A grade of C is the minimum passing ranking and shows an acceptable water quality. Any pool that does not meet this level will be asked to clean up and then its water will be tested again. The water-quality checks for the pools within the city have not yet begun this year. They are scheduled to start this week.

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